Project Bond: The Man With The Golden Gun

I much preferred this outing to Roger Moore’s debut, although that is less to do with the man himself than it is to down to the script and the quite simply villainous villain. Christopher Lee is quite simply splendid as Francisco Scaramanga, and there quite simply isn’t enough of him.

Moore continues to look as though he’s had half a dozen botox injections, showing absolutely no emotion during a scene in which he is told that there is a man (with a golden gun, no less) plotting his demise, and that he (Bond) has been relieved of duty. On the occasions he attempts a smile, he looks as though he could do with some pointers from Ed Miliband. He could also use a couple of expressive eyebrows, like what Connery had, or even one would be a start.

Bond is not exactly a great role model, choosing to push a Thai boy into the river rather than pay him the money he promised. Shortly afterwards, J. W. Pepper turns up for absolutely no reason at all, and we learn that his wife addresses him by his initials. A fascinating and useful character insight that was not half as good as more screen time for Christopher Lee would have been.</sarcasm> J. W. also ends up in the river, but he called an elephant ugly, so unlike the wee laddie, he deserved it.

The scene in which Bond and Scaramanga sit down for dinner reminded me of a similar moment in Dr. No, a role for which Ian Fleming suggested Christopher Lee, incidentally. This segment contains the famous “You get as much pleasure out of killing as I do, so why not admit it?” exchange, which was tempting, but I selected a different best villain line, as you’ll see.

Scaramanga’s manservant, Nick Nack, is rather reminiscent of Oddjob, with a touch of the French stereotype about him, and rather a lot of fun poked at his dwarfism. Bond is still very aggressive with women, something that is excusable when they’re trying to kill him, which is often, but not always. However, it’s nice to see Moneypenny standing up for herself a bit more, apparently having had enough of his shit.